It has recently become common for web sites to display individual data points in connection with a geographic map. For example, many real estate web sites permit their users to display a map of a particular geographic region that shows the location of every home that is currently for sale. A user may click on one of these homes to obtain detailed information about the home. Similarly, some property tax jurisdictions make available web sites that show each property tax parcel on a map; a user may click on one of the parcels to see detailed information about it.
A user may typically zoom a map displayed by a web site in or out to show, respectively, a smaller or larger geographic region in the same display region on the screen. A map may also typically be panned in any direction, such that a neighboring geographic region in that direction is displayed, thus “traversing” geographic space.